Tear A Path

Outside were tens of men, all equipped in black skin tight suits, while several weapons dangled from harnesses which were attached to it.

They had to deal with these guys anyway, but maybe if she didn"t propose what she did, then she wouldn"t be up here.

These guys were troublesome to say the least, and if she was honest, in more times than she could count if Grendolyn wasn"t here, she"d be dead.

Her plan was simple, since Grendolyn warned against using excessive attacks and she needed to match their range, then Grendolyn wouldn"t be attacking. She"d simply transport them by forming a ramp of sorts for them to stand on and shielding them until they reached a high enough height where Tess"s arrows could reach.

But she had underestimated her opponents this time, for some time now, she"d been pretty confident with her speed in comparison to the guys she"d met so far. Except that these weren"t those same guys, they were part of Mototsune"s elite, not some grunt who"s day to day job was simply patrolling and trying to shoot towards a general direction.

Their aim was realms higher than those she had faced, despite not yet matching her reaction and aiming speed, their weapon choice more than made up for the deficit. Compared to pulling a bow, there was no way a finger on a trigger would be slower.

Not to mention that they were completely outnumbered, if she poked out her pinky, there was no doubt that she"d lose it. "You happy now!?" Grendolyn spat as she held up the earth wall which was basically the only thing separating them from death.

She wasn"t happy about this either. In the first place, she hated heights. She was an earth mage, emphasis on earth. She wasn"t supposed to be fighting this far up from the ground. Heck, as a blacksmith, she wasn"t supposed to be fighting anywhere at all. If only her d.a.m.ned pride allowed her to back out even when everyone put their hopes on her, she wouldn"t be in this mess.

Then again, she had an excuse. Seeing as how she was the only mage capable of manipulating earth to this level. The rest of the mages were only able to do spells like earth spike in this element, so unless the other archers wanted skewered into a shish kebab all the way up here, she was the only man for the job.

"What are you doing!? Didn"t you say you were able to shoot them when we got close enough?" Grendolyn screamed as she continuously tried to repair the barrier, it was crude but it was the only thing keeping them alive.

"How do you expect me to shoot!? I don"t even have enough time to aim!"

"Then don"t aim, let me do the aiming, you just shoot through any opening I give you." Grendolyn said a she strained against her limiters just trying to push the process faster. "I"m going to open the a hole in our wall, make sure you dodge as soon as you release, I can"t close it as fast, 3! 2!..."

"Wait! wait! wait! I"m" Tess screamed.

"1!"

"Argh dammit!" Tess cursed as she drew her bow and launched a shot into the first hole that popped up in the earth dome that covered them.

"Argh!" Almost as soon as she shot it a scream echoed her own from outside the wall. As soon as that happened, Tess wanted to pat herself in the back, but was pulled out of the way as bullets began to enter through the small hole.

One in particular came from a very close shooter, not losing it"s momentum as it entered their safe haven, it ricocheted of the ground and bounced off the wall several times before finally stopping as Grendolyn and Tess played a game of super speed twister to avoid it"s trajectory.

As soon as it finished, Grendolyn worked quickly to close the wall back up before turning to admonish Tess some more. "Don"t celebrate so early, we could"ve died back there!"

"Geez chill out... at least we killed one guy."

"That"s great, we killed One! When there are almost forty of them out there what good do you think one is going to do!?"

Somehow their exasperated actually entertained their "guests" and some began to talk to them.

"Hey ladies, it seems like you"re in a pretty tough spot. You know, despite this war or whatever, we don"t feel like killing anybody if we don"t need to." For a moment they listened to the man, if he was sincere, maybe they really didn"t need to fight, they were in a dis advantageous position anyway. "Even though you"ve shot one of our men, we"re prepared to let it go. Of course you"d have to leave the fight and maybe show us some... eh... "kindness" in favor of our own kindness right now."

"Who would want to show kindness to you!" Tess tried to poke her head out, Grendolyn pulled her back in before she got shot. "Hah! are you the one with that stupid looking mask!?"

"St..Stupid!? I"ll have you know this is the latest technology in oxygen masks, keeping our pressure perfect regardless of the alt.i.tude, and it has..." The man tried to explain himself.

"B#lls.h.i.t, latest technology in trying to cover up your face maybe." Grendolyn retorted. "Why isn"t any of your friends wearing it. Is that why you"re so desperate? You"re face is so hideous you have to stoop to asking for s.e.xual favors from a cornered enemy?"

His companions couldn"t help but snicker at those replies. "Shut up! what are you laughing at!?" He pointed to his comrades who were shaking trying to hold back.

Somehow, girls could be at each other"s throats all the time, but once they met a common enemy (Men), they were like a well oiled machine, working together to emasculate a guy to the point of tears.

"F#ck, you know what I was trying to be nice." The guy pointed at their earth wall.

"We know exactly what you were trying to do. Are you sure that mask isn"t cutting off the oxygen to your brain instead?" Grendolyn mocked.

"Dammit! some of you switch to the grenade launchers, we"ll break that wall instead of waiting for them." The guy commanded.

Wrong move.

"Hey eunuch." Tess"s voice echoed, the lot of them turned their head towards the earth wall. "Hahaha! all of you responded to being called eunuch." Her voice rang out again, but this time, instead of from the earth wall, it came from directly below them.